The founder and Chairman of Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Jim Ovia is expected to earn a massive sum of N9.575 billion in dividend for the financial year ended December 2020

The highly revered banker is the single majority shareholder of Zenith Bank as he directly owns 3,546,199,395 units of the fast-rising bank stock out of the 31,396,493,787 ordinary shares available. This gives him an 11.29% direct interest in the Tier -1 bank.

It’s however important to note that such dividend is subject to a 10% withholding tax in Nigeria.

READ: Is Zenith Bank thriving on the strength of sound financial indices?

Recall that about a day ago, the Board of Directors of the bank in a statement released via the Nigerian Stock Exchange proposed a final dividend of N2.70, amounting to a total payout of N3.00 per share for the financial year 2020 (interim: N0.30).

This proposal reflects the past year’s robust performance and appears to signal that Zenith bank remains well-positioned to perform in the current financial year. However, there was a lower payout ratio at 40.9% compared to FY’19 (42.1%).

• Key earnings drivers to the financial year performance under review were a 90 basis points drop in the cost of funds to 2.1%, which propelled net interest income (+12.2% YoY) and a 3.8x jump in revaluation gains to N43.4 billion.
• These offset pressures from operating costs (the cost to income ratio rose 1.2ppts to 50.0%) and impairment charges (cost of risk rose 40basis points to 1.5%)

READ: Jim Ovia: From a clerk to founder of Nigeria’s most profitable bank

Described as the ‘Godfather of banking in Nigeria’ by Forbes Africa, Jim Ovia is quite popular for his business dexterity and leadership skills, especially in the banking sector.

His early interest in technology was the reason Zenith Bank became the first Nigerian company to have a functional website in 1995 and was able to smoothly migrate its operations from analog times to a digital era.

From a single branch in a residential building, Zenith Bank now has hundreds of branches all over Nigeria and several subsidiaries in other countries. The bank became a Public Limited Company in 2001 and was listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), and later on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

On the 27th of April 2007, Zenith Bank Plc became the first Nigerian bank in 25 years to be licensed by the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA), giving rise to Zenith Bank UK Limited.

The Nigerian bourse ended the second trading session slightly positive amid impressive gains from Zenith Bank. The All Share Index improved by 0.03% to 40,164.86 index points. Year-to-date return and market capitalization settled at -0.26% and N21.01 trillion respectively.

A total volume of 337.9 million units of shares, valued at N3.84billion exchanged hands in 4,164 deals.

The most traded stocks by volume were FBNH (64.58 million units), ZENITHBANK (52.67 million units), TRANSCORP (41.98 million units) and while ZENITHBANK (N1.34 billion), FBNH (N471.80 million) and UBA (N128.22 million) topped the value chart.

AIICO (+7.14%) led the gainer’s chart today, while SUNUASSUR (-9.88%) was the top loser. However, the market breadth index was negative with 16 gainers against 24 losers.

Top gainers

1. AIICO up 7.14% to close at N1.2
2. LIVESTOCK up 7.14% to close at N2.25
3. FLOURMILL up 6.16% to close at N31
4. ZENITHBANK up 4.84% to close at N26
5. CUTIX up 4.65% to close at N2.25

Top losers

1. SUNUASSUR down 9.88% to close at N0.73
2. LASACO down 9.87% to close at N1.37
3. AFRIPRUD down 9.85% to close at N5.95
4. ABCTRANS down 8.57% to close at N0.32
5. UPL down 8.53% to close at N1.18

Outlook

Nigerian stocks ended Tuesday’s trading session on a slightly positive note amid stellar performance for Nigeria’s top tier-1 bank.

• Zenith bank, some hours ago had earlier released its audited financial year 2020 results showing impressive growth on the back of a stellar Q4 outing.
• In FY’20, the tier1 bank recorded a 10.4% YoY jump in profit after tax to N230.6 billion (vs N211.6 billion expected).

That being said, the Nigerian Stock Exchange consumer goods and insurance indices fell by 1.61% and 0.92% respectively. On the flip side, the NSE banking index closed as the lone gainer, up by 1.68%, while the industrial and energy indexes remained unchanged.

Nairametrics recommends you seek the advice of a stockbroker amid price volatility presently prevailing at medium and low capitalized stocks.